Just been sacked ,what are my rites?

[Marne]

Hi,
I handed my notice in on monday to look after my autistc dd2 and gave a weeks notice, i was told this should be ok, got to work today to be told i have to work 5 weeks notice (a week for each year i have worked there), i got upset as i have planed to finish friday and to start working with dd at home with speech therapy. Anyway i was called to the office and then sacked , i was upset and crying, i told my boss that my little girl ment more to me than the job as it would for any mother, i was told to stop trying to get sympathy and leeve. I was then told i could'nt collect my things or say goodbye to anyone, by this time i was hysterical, they collected my things and marched me to my car

Since i have been home i have looked at my contract from 2005 which states i need to give 1 weeks notice if i have worked longer than a month, it also states that i need 3 writter warnings before they can sack me. I am unsure if i have signed anything else since being there but im sure if i did it would be with my other contract.

I only worked 25 hours a week but have been there for 5 years. Where do i stand, surely they cant treet people like this?

This is'nt the first time they have done it either.

You should have been entitled to parental leave I think, but would have to give 21 days notice to get that - if your company does it - not sure if it's the law!

Anyhow - it does seem they have sacked you for no reason at all. If I were your boss I would be very worried about this. She obviously doesn't know her employment law.

what reason are they giving you for sacking you?

They hav'nt given me any reason, i was just asked to leeve straight away, i prusume because i refused to work my 5 weeks notice.

it's just shocking and I think you shold persue this as they have obviously made a big istake. They haven't followed procedures and unless they are citing gross misconduct I don't think they have a leg to stand on! It's not even gross misconduct!

Just spoke to a friend that works there, she said nobody has been told about what happened and she will make sure evryone knows tommorrow, she thinks i should persue and is willing to get the sack to stick up for me.

Ive spent most of the day crying, i dont think anyone has ever spoken to me like they did and im still realy shocked. I have done so much for these people, worked overtime, looked after there horses and dogs while they go on holiday, worked at short notice etc, i realy did'nt expect to be treated so badly.

Hopefuly tommorrow i will feel beter and be able to explain the situation to my soliciter with out getting angry or crying.

Shocking!! Definitely ring ACAS if you haven't already.

IIRC you can't be sacked if you've already handed in your notice (in writing) and it's been accepted. Also, as others said, you have to either have been given 3 warnings (verbal/written) or found guilty of gross misconduct to be fired on the spot. They sound like bastards tbh. I wonder why they would do this too, if you'd already handed your notice in. Have you worked out the finances? Perhaps they reckon they could get away with not paying you anything if you're sacked?

Also check out this for rights etc. Good luck!

Get some free advice from your fathers solicitor and write to your company informing them that you have taken legal advice and request a meeting with senior management and for HR personnel to be present.

Take your contract with you and inform that that they have breach said contract. Inform them that you will be taking this to a tribunal.

CAB and ACAS are not the best and can only give you a certain amount of veral advice. Do a bit of reading up for yourself.

This might help for starters:

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/yourrights/equalityanddiscrimination/howtouseyour rights/Pages/Theemploymenttribunalprocess.aspx

Thankyou for your advice and links acording to derectGov i have been unfairly dismissed. They did'nt explain why they were sacking me (this is unfair), they did'nt discus the situation to me (this is wrong) they did'nt give me a chance to discus it and it was delt with in an un-proffetional manor.

The only problem is i was leeving tommorrow anyway so i am only missing out on todays and tommorrows wages. I think i owe them 3 days holiday which i have taken but not earned, my wages that they owe me wont cover this as i only worked 2 days this week.

Im not sure if i can take action if they dont owe me money.

As I think I pointed out earlier, haven't got time to read back, claiming unfair dismissal is pretty pointless unless you have some financial loss, as compensation is decided that way.

Even if you do decide you want to claim unfair dismissal for whatever reason, you have do as I also said earlier, and put in a grievance first. Do that, and try and get the reference and any pay issues resolved.

you should contact acas

if there was a change in HR policy - you should have singed something to say that you understaood it - for instance if they changed the policy whilst you were there to say that you have to give a wek for every year you have ben there - then you should have been given a letter and made to sign it - if you havn't done this then your original contract stands.

i would contact acas - i for one would not stand for the injustice - the pay is not the point. and i would expect then to get royally shafted by someone for scewing up this way - if you were sacked by anyopne else other than the boss - then getting solicitors involved might mean they get their come uppance.

I think it was my superviser/manager that has messed up, she was the one who told me i had to work 5 weeks, i think she miss read the contract as it states they have to give me 5 weeks. After she told me this i asked to see boss 1 (there are 2, husband and wife) she said 'ok i will get him to show you the contract and go through it with you', then boss 2 came and sacked me. Maybe they realised they could'nt show me the contract as my manager had made a mistake and thought by letting me go early (sacking me) would just get rid of me thinking that i would'nt have the brain to go home and check my contract.

Its not about the money, its about how unfair they have been, i want them to know what they have done is so wrong.

Seen my family solicitor this morning,i was told i had a good case and my emloyer handled the situation very badly, he als said the fact that they would'nt let me have unpayed time off to take my daughter to hospitial goes again'st there contract. I have been given a phone number of another soliciter who deals with empolyment issues, i gave him a ring but they cant see me until the 15th of september and the apointment will cost me £130.

Dh is a bit shocked at the £130, but my solicitor thinks i have a good chance of getting money out of this (even though i don't care about the money)

What shall i do?

I am intrigued that your solicitor thinks you have a good chance of getting money. Why would that be exactly? This was a non-employment specialist who said this...?

To be quite honest I can't see how you could get money out of it, certainly not enough to justify solicitors fees and stress and hassle of bringing a claim. You haven't suffered any financial loss, so what would be the basis for compensation? I am confused by that claim I have to say and would advise you take it with a bucketful of salt.

I maintain that your best option is to put in a strongly worded grievance about this, and use that to get the reference issue sorted, which as far as I can tell, is the only thing you've actually lost here.

Not CAB, you need specialist employment advice. You need to find a no-win no-fee lawyer to talk to.

I am not sure where you are, but, for example, a company here, reputable company called Nash and Co, the will discuss in detail and if you have a case, which you clearly have, they will represent you for nothing, if you win anything compensation etc you will pay a percentage.

Whilst I am not advocating having to pay a company to help, CAB only know so much, you need to take them to the cleaners and not mess with nicey nicey letters etc.

They have broken the law, they have humiliated you, and they have just made the looking after of your vulnerable child much harder as you are stressed and upset.

for you.

And no do not contact them, even if they want to discuss it, tell them exactly what your DH says, its going to solicitors, end of story.

Marne has not suffered financial loss, there is no point 'taking them to the cleaners', she will get no compensation.

Her only potential loss is in terms of losing a potential future job because of the reference problem.

the law is afaik but ill double check later for you that you get two verbal warnings that have to be written down and three written warning before they can sack for anything other than gross msiconduct which is things like sexual harassment, showing up drunk, taking drugs not handing in your notice.

but a tribunal will take up a lot of time so id consider it carefully if you are hoping to have a lot of time with your dd. though they would be made to pay you your notice period at the very least and it would look better on your cv than saying you have been sacked otoh they wouldnt give references for you.

i would do it for the injustice and future lack of reference - you were here 5 years - thats a bloody large gap to lie about on your cv - and a whole lotta skils you can't mention.

i would do it becuase of the injustice

i beleieve flowery when she says - you were leaving anyway - you have no financial recourse - personally i would go after the inept bitch who made you cry.

but you can do that through the company and it will not cost you. The company will have specific grievence procedures which you can follow, and given you have evidence that the contract was wrongly quoted they will have to honour your notice and revoke your dismissal.

Going through the courts though will be impossible as a lawyer will not represent you if there is no chance of compensation (which there isn't) because their earnings come from compensation. so unless you are prepared to pay for a solicitor and prepared to go through court cases etc thus sacrificing time with your dd then i wouldn't go down that route.

The issue is your reference, imo. As you say you are a specialist these sorts of people tend to all know each other.

I would write a letter stating about the way you were treated and use phrases like 'injury to feelings' and that they failed to follow proper procedure.

You cannot recover injury to feelings only, as it is subsidiary matter.

Perhaps you could propose a reference and get this agreed.

I know i wont get much money or so i thought (my solicitor says otherwise), my solicitor pointed out they have broken at least 3 breaches of the contract, they have given me no reason other than not working my notice to sack me, i was't even allowed to put my point accross.

As i said before i dont want any money, i just want it in writting that i was unfairly sacked through a huge mistake they made.

My contract states that they cant sack me unless they give me a weeks notice for evry year i have worked there (5 weeks) undernief this it states if i work for them any longer than 1 month and i want to leeve i should give them 1 weeks notice (which i did).

They have posted me the coppy of the contract which they reffered to (i asked for this) and there is a big arrow pointing to the part that states THEY have to give me a weeks notice for evry year i have worked there. The manager is the one who has dug the contract out and so called checked it but she's got it all wrong (or is trying to make it look like a mistake as she thought i would'nt question it).

I think what my soliciter is getting at is they cant sack me (even if i am leeving anyway) without giving ME 5 weeks notice, there for they should pay me 5 weeks wadges.

If they had sat down and explained the situation to me without sacking me on the spot i probibly would have stayed a few more weeks to help them out (if i could make arangements at home).

I doubt you'd get 5 weeks wages out of them. They will have to acknowledge that to terminate your employment they would need to give that amount of notice, but you'd already handed in a weeks notice anyway and were leaving in a few days, so you haven't lost 5 weeks pay as at that time you weren't prepared to work 5 weeks and had made that clear. They don't have to pay you notice pay if you're not prepared to work it, they must give you 5 weeks notice in the sense of a period of time, and may choose to pay it rather than have you working it. But if you weren't prepared to work it they don't have to pay it. You won't be able to suddenly decide after the event that actually you would have worked 5 weeks longer if they'd asked nicely.

Best bet is to put in your written grievance, and I think the best outcome you can hope for is them to admit they were wrong to act in this way, which they undoubtedly were and to agree to a good reference. Possibly even a couple of weeks pay as a bit of a 'goodwill' gesture (bad choice of words but you know what I mean.)

Your solicitor is right about the breach of contract, but as far as assessment of damages, or financial loss is the key question here.

Effectively being sacked is terminating your contract, however you already handed in your notice before this.

That they didn't give you notice, they could argue that you weren't willing to work your notice anyway, so technically you were in breach of contract.

May I suggest that you think about it all?

If you work in an industry that you would like to return to in the future and it's a small commnity, perhaps an amicable arrangement would be better for all concerned?

Lastly, without wishing to appear opportunistic, since you were sacked, might you be entitled to benefits? I know nothing about benefits but might be worth finding out.

I just want to scair them basicly, i am willing to pay to get a letter from my solicitor stating that i could take this further. I want a written apoligy from my employer and i want my wages including for yesterday and today. I want an apoligy for the way i was teated (macrched off the premisses, spoken to like a piece of crap).
The trouble is these people are not the type to back down and admit they were in the wrong but maybe with a letter from my solicitor they may feel they have no choice.

My father is willing to pay the £130 to see this solicitor, he feels i need to persue this just to prove they are wrong.

I dont want this to go as far as court etc, i just want an apoligy and to make sure they don't do this again as this is the 3rd time they have done this, the others had only worked there for a few months so did'nt have a leg to stand on.

Yes, but what you have to take into account is that a letter may not solve it for you. They may dispute your version of events, bring up your previous warning etc.

As you know, solicitors are retained by the hour, so 130.00 may not go very far.

Of course marching someone out of the building is totally disproportionate and wrong. However the costs could mount up very very quickly so be aware of this.

Also keep in mind that once this has died down, a good reference is worth loads....

The £130 will be for initial consultation, there will be more for writing a letter I expect.

If what you want is written acknowledgement that they were wrong, for most people it would be far more sensible (both in terms of cost and of time and hassle) to at least try to get it through an internal grievance first.

If you want to threaten them with legal action you'd have to raise a grievance first anyway, so I would say surely worth making that attempt first and if you don't get anywhere, then considering spending money on a solicitor.

if I were the employer and I received a threatening letter I'd reply stating that you should raise any concerns in an internal grievance first to give me the opportunity to address them.